Oct. ARC

I know I had posted what I was going to be reading for the year. But I decided not to review 2 of the books that i picked. I did read them though. So as of this writing (March 19) I have read all of the books I picked for the year. Remember we are selling the house and I wanted to read some of the hardcopy as I could so I didn't have to bring them with me. I still have some paperback books, but they are part of a series and I don't have i ones before or after the books I have. Call me crazy but i like to read them in order. lol

For the October ARC I read an e-book through the digital library. Why I did that instead one of the many I have already downloaded, I didn't know. LOL The book is "A Slice of Murder"  by Chris Cavender. First of the series called Pizza Lovers Mysteries. It takes place n a small town in North Carolina(like all cozy mysteries) The main Charterer is Eleanor Swift. She owns a Pizza place Slice of Delight(thus the them of the series. LOL). She took over the ownership when her deceased husband, Joe first opened the place. Her sister Maddy helps out as hostess and server.

In "Slice of Murder" Eleanor goes to make a light night delivery to Richard Olsen, but when she arrives she finds him dead. After calling the police, Kevin, the police chief, suspects Eleanor did it. Now Eleanor and her sister look into the murder to clear her name.

After reading biographies, and thrillers, and other books this year, its nice to get back to reading a cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters in the book. Like all cozies it was an easy read. I will be reading the others in the series.

Happy Halloween!

Okay so this card I made the same time I made the last Halloween never made it to the mail box to someone. But since its Halloween I thought I show it. :)

I used cardstock scraps from La-La-Land stamps Halloween kit. and decorative paper from the kit.

 I stamped the new Julie Nutting stamp that I picked up the other week at Crafting Place. I stamped her on manila cardstock with versafine black ink pad. Used watercolor artist loft to paint her hair and sleeves and skirt. I used scraps from the last card for her shirt and scarf. I added black Stickles for the hair band. It needed something else for the front of the card. So I took 3 wood veneer bats that were in the kit and painted them black watercolor and then added the black stickles to them. I let them sit overnight and then glued them to the card.

The inside of the card I used the Witchy poo stamp set for the sentiment and the bat. in the same black ink pad.

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween cards

It was a while since I've been in a swap and when I saw Laurel talking about doing Halloween card swap I decided to join as I brought with me my Halloween stamps. I did start playing around what I was in my head in my journal, but it didn't work out becuase 1. I didn't bring much cardstock with me and 2 I didn't bring any card bases to put what I planned on doing on the card base. So I had to go another way. I won a $10 gift certificate from 7 kids collage fund and ordered the witchy poo stamp set of Julie Nutting by Prima with it. Late in August I had gotten a happy mail package from Diane and init was some scrapbook papers of Nightingale by Colorbox and Oriental trading company. so I used 2 sheets of each papers. and cut them in to 6x6. and made cards from them. They are not the most traditional colors of Halloween but you gotta use what you got and that what I got! :)

I know I know....pink and black what a shocker of colors coming from me. :)

I stamped the witch and pumpkins and bats on white cardstock(I did bring some) and colored them with crayola twistable color pencils. Her dress is another paper from Oriental trading company. The hat is another paper from nightingale. The black tape with white poka dots is ducking duck tape. The witching hour is from Viva Las VegaStamps! and stamped on scrap white cardstock. I added some sequins that I got at Dollar tree a few weeks ago. 

The inside I stamped Happy Haunting from Viva Las VegaStamps!

Halloween Card #1

Thanks to some friends sending me crafty RAK's I've been able to get crafty while we are STILL looking for a place to live (My parents did put a bid on a place but so did 3 other people. and the guy turned down all of us and countered which wasn't really a counter offer as it was his asking price! My parents did counter but we didn't get the house. We are still looking) . Course it would be nice to have my own stuff to play with along with the crafty goodness sent to me.

Anyway in one of the RAK's I was sent the Sept. La-La-Land Sept kit. Its a Halloween kit. the kit is great. Came with papers and embellishments, stamp and dies. It did come with a link to download 3 projects to make with the kit. But since I don't have my big shot with me to use the dies, I didn't bother looking at that.

Here is a card I made with some of the kit.

I cut the black cardstock that came in the kit horizontal and folded in half. I then cut the orange cardstock 5 1/2 by 4 1/2 and the pattern paper 5 by 4. I attached the papers to the black card base with Miracle tape. The images I stamped on white cardstock with Stazon black ink pad. I colored with Crayola twistable color pencils. I blended with a Q-tip and baby oil.

I attached the set of 3 pumpkins with Miracle tape. Then the individual pumpkins, the small one I used Miracle tape to attach the the other single pumpkin. Then I used foam dots to attach those to to the set of 3. Then attached her to the card using the foam dots too. 

The inside I used the extra piece of orange cardstock using the smooth side. I stamped her again and stamped the sentiment. 

I do have another Halloween card I'm working on, but S T I C K L E S had to dry before putting it together. :)

Anything But a Challenge 40: autumn magic/spring wonder

This months theme for the challenge over at Anything but a card challenge blog is Autumn magic/spring wonder depending what part of the world you are in. I did Halloween.  As you guys know I just move out to Las Vegas last August. We still haven't found a place yet. All the places we looked at the bedrooms are small not enough room for our bedroom furniture let alone my craft stuff! I was smart enough to bring with me my Halloween stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps! when I was packing some craft stuff to take with me in the car for the road trip. Because I knew I would be doing something on Halloween for the blog.:)

I did a journal page for this months challenge. I used a scrap of paper (nightingale from Colorbox) that I used for another project I was working on. Cut it to the size of the journal pages, but a 1/4 smaller. i used my distresser tool to distress the edges. The journal itself I used pink water color to paint the edges of the white paper. I then stamped the fence, moon and bats broom Viva Las VegaStamps! I took the tree background stamp and only stamped the branches on the left and right side of the paper. I stamped the witch falling off the broom. I had the girl witch and pumpkin (prima Julie Nutting) left over from cards I was making and decided to use them for the journal page. I then stamped the "Witching hour" and "Life is a witch and then you fly" Both from Viva Las VegaStamps! on scraps of the gray paper as the background. When the page was done I used Mircal tape to attach it to the journal.

Be sure to go to the Anything but a card challenge blog to check out what our DT is doing and play along!

I'm also going to enter this in the Viva Las VegaStamps! October monthly challenge.

Sept. ARC book

For the August book I read "Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide & Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death by Irvin Muchnick.

The book goes in death of the Murder-Suicide of Nancy, Chris, and their son, back in June 2007. What happened that weekend, if WWE higher ups knew before their Monday night show what truly happened, how steroids may have played a part of it, how law enforcement handled it and how media made a media circus of if it. Irvin talked to(or tried to) Former neighbors, family members, layers, co-workers about what happened.

Even though I haven't watched pro wrestling in years(I do keep up with what is going on), but I do remember when this happened. I was shocked when I heard about it. I remember listening to online radio shows and watching all the news coverage on CNN and other cable news channels. And I remember wishing that some of the reporters of the news shows would of done a better job at research before interviewing people(the cable news reporters not the internet radio shows, as the internet shows I listened to knew about wrestling).

The book was really good. Some things I knew from reading online, and somethings I didn't know. Because of the subject matter I opted not to do the art for this book.

Anything But A Card Challenge 40 STEAMPUNKtember

Its another steampunk challenge over at Anything But A card Challenge blog.

I am not a steampunk type of girl so this was a real challenge for me. But I think I pulled it off. 

The journal I used is from Prima. The pages are single sided so I used the back side of one of the pages. I cut a piece of 12x12 paer from Timless Type from DCWV. I cut it a little smaller than the page in the journal so there's a border on the page. I distressed the edges with my scissors. I used distress stain in Antiqued Bronze on the page in the journal so it wouldn't be white border anymore. I took theTarnish Brass around the distrssed edges of the Tatter Type paper. I used an empty ATG tape roll to use as a stamp. I put some Brushed Pewter distress stain on a stamp block added some water and used the plastic tape thing as a stamp. I also used some of it for splatters and drips. 

I cut the hot air balloon from the Cartogpher collection by Prima. It was in the ATC pad, but the pad is really 41/2 by 6 1/2(or somewhere around there). I found my Journal cards from the Craftsmen collection. I cut the boarder from one of the cards and glued them to the left side of the paper.

 I used Priscilla, the Julie Nutting stamps from Prima. I stamped her on the Buff paper pad with black Versafine ink pad. I dressed her with 3 of the Craftmen journaling cards. I painted her hair and part of her boot with Inktense color pencil. The band on her hat is Gold marker from American Crafts. I glued her on the paper. I then added some more splots from the metallic distress stains. I then glued that page to the Journal. Then I let it sit. I know it needed something else. I didn't feel like digging in my stash for my gears that were cut on foam for stamping. 

When I was dog sitting in June I went to Michael's and saw that Mod Podge came out with new Mod Molds(and new Mod Melts) I picked up the industrial mold to use for this. And I finally used the Amazing Casting Resin and 2 of the Alumilite powders that I won from Amazing Mold Putty back in December.

Here I set up my mold. I used the Allumilite Bronze and Gun Metal powders with a paint brush.

what the bottles look like when I look them out of the box

What part A and B look like in the little cups.

What it looks like after you pour into a plastic or paper cup, and stirred. Side note this get hot! And the more you stir the hotter it gets. and it sets up really fast.

This is what it looks like when it sets up. Its white. I had some left over resin and I was going to pour into the clock with this batch but the resin that was still in the cup set up by the time I finished pouring powder in it. So I had to make more and used the other mold I got to see what they  looked liked. That set up while in mid pour. Was wild. LOL

And this is what they look like out of the mold. You can see I didn't get enough of the powder on the clock.

Once those were don While still warm and pliable. I trimmed the ones that needed to be trimmed. I used 2 of the small gears and the clock. I was able to glue them to the page with Aleen's Tacky.  I went to word pad and useing Type Keys Filled font and typed Party like its 1899! cut it out glued it to the page. Colored the white showing with gold color pencil and Finally used Glossy Accents on the keys.

So be sure to check out Anything But A Card challenge blog to see what the other DT memebers are doing and play along! And don't forget ABAC is having a DT call! Deadline to send in your application to amazingcrafting at yahoo dot com is Sept 13! All the info about the DT call can be found here